UN welcomes climate summit deal

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a US-backed climate deal in Copenhagen as an "essential beginning".

He was speaking after delegates passed a motion recognising the agreement, which the US reached with key nations including China and Brazil.

But Mr Ban said the agreement must be made legally binding next year. Earlier, the meeting failed to secure unanimous support, amid opposition from some developing nations. Climate deal: Key issuesSeveral South American countries, such as Nicaragua and Venezuela, were among a group saying the agreement had not been reached through proper process.

The BBC's environment correspondent Richard Black says the deal may disappoint many countries that wanted tougher action on climate change. He says the Copenhagen Accord looks unlikely to contain temperature rises to within 2C (3.6F) and it is not yet clear whether it counts as a formal UN deal or not.

"The conference decides to take note of the Copenhagen Accord of December 18, 2009," the chairman of the plenary session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declared on Saturday morning, swiftly banging down his gavel.


When President Obama left Copenhagen last night, he appeared to think he carried a nice, neat deal in his back pocket.

Perhaps he didn't realise that having it formally adopted in the closing plenary session here would mean getting it past a hall full of smart diplomats and lawyers from countries that hate the contents of the deal and the way it was done.

Objections from several countries mean it has not been formally adopted. Delegations are now trying to introduce language making some bits legally binding.

A global deal? That's looking less and less likely… whether it matters, whether the Chinese and US architects care, is another matter.

Delegates at the climate summit had been battling through the night to prevent the talks ending without reaching a final deal.

The Copenhagen Accord is based on a proposal tabled on Friday by a US-led group of five nations - including China, India, Brazil and South Africa - that President Barack Obama called a "meaningful agreement".

The accord includes a recognition to limit temperature rises to less than 2C and promises to deliver $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid for developing nations over the next three years. It outlines a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change.